Because it literally is straight forward.
I know. I know!
You need talent, genes, determination, skill, power, dedication, a bit of luck along the way, perseverance and a whole lot more to achieve great things in professional sport.
But in sprinting, surely the basics are pretty straightforward? And here, I mean the real basics.
How have Noah Lyles and his fellow competitors risen to the top of this sport when they are struggling with even the most simple of sprinting concepts?
Is this a failure in overall athletics organisation, something that their coaches have overlooked or just plain stupidity on their behalf? Because I don’t know much about sprinting, but what I do know is that they all line up on the starting blocks – facing in one direction – a gun goes off and they run as fast as they can to the finish line.
It’s absolutely straight.
And even in the 200m, where you have to go around a bit of a bend, there are lines to help you.
Honestly, if he’s right and actually nobody does know which direction to go in, either they’ve been extremely lucky that athletes haven’t veered into the crowd or onto the javelin landing zone, or someone has been making sure that they quietly tell the runners which direction to go in just before the start, and that’s been enough.
But sooner or later, the luck will run out or the person won’t be there to tell them, and chaos will ensure.
I look forward to that day. It will be messy, but it should be fun to watch.